DOL Recovers Assets for Kentucky Pension Plan

Consent judgments were obtained against Robert La Courciere
and Pamela Babbish, former trustees of the Fourslides Inc. pension plan. These
judgments follow the recovery of $490,594 owed to the plan. A lawsuit filed by
the DOL in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky alleged
that over three years, La Courciere, Babbish, George Hofmeister and Fourslides
Inc. improperly used pension funds. Judgments against the remaining defendants
are being sought by the DOL in ongoing litigation.

The DOL’s lawsuit alleges that La Courciere, Babbish,
Hofmeister and Fourslides engaged in a series of prohibited transactions
involving the Fourslides pension plan beginning in March 2006. La Courciere and
Babbish were alleged to have caused the transfer of plan assets to Fourslides
and the payment of excessive fees to service providers, while La Courciere also
entered into a prohibited loan of nearly half the plan’s assets to a
party-in-interest. Hofmeister was alleged to have directed each of the
companies that engaged in the improper loan, benefitted from the loan, and took
no action to remedy these prohibited transactions.

These consent judgments permanently bar La Courciere and
Babbish from serving as fiduciaries to any plan governed by the Employee
Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and enjoin them from violating ERISA.

The DOL has also filed separate lawsuits seeking to recover
losses to other pension plans sponsored by companies related to Lexington-based
Revstone Industries LLC, an affiliate of Fourslides. Revstone and its various
affiliates, including Fourslides, were directed by Hofmeister and owned by the
irrevocable trusts of Hofmeister’s children.

These suits allege many other ERISA violations,
including the prohibited use of plan assets for the purchase and lease of
company property, prohibited purchase of customer notes from affiliated
companies, prohibited transfer of assets in favor of a party-in-interest,
payment of excessive fees to service providers and payment of fees on behalf of
the affiliated companies.